Almost everyone has been critical of the government’s methods when it comes to disaster preparedness and response.

We here at Acton also tend to be very focused on the importance of private enterprise when it comes to dealing with local problems.

And so I present an interesting case study for your analysis: The Department of Homeland Security has created a website, www.ready.gov, that promises to be a resource for those facing an imminent natural disaster. The Federation of American Scientists has released their own version (suprisingly, they’ve copied the layout and general structure of the ready.gov website, so the Department of Homeland Security must have done something right), www.fas.org/reallyready/, claiming that there were several problems with the government’s version that they hoped to correct in their own version.

The homepage of ReallyReady also contains a link that explains some of the problems that they found with the government’s website and also includes a 38 page report explaining these problems.

So, take a look and tell us what you think. Which version is better? Which one would help you be more prepared in the face of a large-scale disaster?

One more thing – the FAS page, ReallyReady, was created by a single intern in the space of about nine weeks.

any moron can plagiarize code and a design. i’m surprised it took ’em 9 weeks, actually. maybe they’re “SLOW” (from the street signs).

i’ve got a GREAT idea, maybe they should come up with THEIR OWN idea, design, content, coding and actually HELP the public. Obviously, they had enough time on their hands to plagiarize, take screenshots, type stuff in, and create a 38-page critique.

i’m tired of idiots using the web… and FAS just proved they’re not worthy.

http://www.hubsandspokes.com marc

Mike – Just curious. I noticed that your name links to http://www.ready.gov; are you actually connected to DHS?

http://www.churchicago.org John Powers

Mike,

If any “idiot” can do it, there must be a lot of really smart people out there, because no other “idiot” seems to be doing it.

Your tiring of “idiots” using the web makes me think that the web will not go the way of the HAM radio, where a group of non-“idiots” have protected their domain for so long now that the HAM communication protocol is archaic and rather quaint.

I welcome other “idiots” to use the web and consider myself to be one of the leading idiots in my hometown.